Thunderstorms passed over Cleveland early Monday morning, but they reappeared Monday night inside Quicken Loans Arena, where the first night of Donald J. Trump’s coronation struck a dark and foreboding tone unmatched by any convention in recent history. Our takeaways:

We’re in grave danger

The lineup of speakers presented a United States in danger, threatened from abroad and from within, a once-proud nation on the very brink of chaos and dystopia. Six of the speakers were military veterans, including Marcus Luttrell, the celebrated former Navy SEAL, who bluntly warned that “the enemy is here.” A half-dozen more were relatives of Americans murdered by foreign terrorists or illegal immigrants — threats to the nation’s safety and cohesion that often mingle in the Trump worldview. Another was the former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who likened the country to a circa-1980s New York in need of a strong hand. “There is no next election,” Mr. Giuliani warned. “This is it!”

Video

On the first day of the convention on Monday, a lot of things did not go as anticipated. The Republican Party sought to show that it had unified behind Donald J. Trump. Instead some delegates tried to stage a last-ditch revolt.Published OnJuly 19, 2016CreditImage by Damon Winter/The New York Times

No time for soft notes

A night of doom and gloom was punctuated by the emergence of Mr. Trump’s media-shy wife, Melania, ostensibly in the traditional spousal role of humanizer. And yes, Ms. Trump spoke of her husband’s patriotism and how much he cared for their son, and urged Republicans to look past the rancor of the primary season. Yet Ms. Trump’s ably delivered address was strangely impersonal — devoid of colorful stories and anecdotes about this most colorful of candidates. (It also had parts strikingly similar to a 2008 Michelle Obama speech.) In the end, her message was the same as every other speaker’s: Mr. Trump is strong and resolute.

Trump in charge

Scott Baio may have been an early speaker on Monday, but there was no question who was in charge. It is one thing for the presumptive nominee to make an early appearance at his own convention, as Mr. Trump did when he introduced his wife before her speech. It is quite another to step on one of the most putatively powerful moments of the night, as Mr. Trump did when he phoned in to Fox to attack Ohio’s popular governor, John Kasich, for skipping the convention in Cleveland. Mr. Trump’s tirade pre-empted the network’s coverage from the convention stage, where two American survivors of the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, were recounting their experience.

Mechanics matter

With Mr. Trump fully in charge, the convention displayed many of the logistical creaks and misfires as did his winning primary campaign. Instead of building to a crescendo — with each speaker reinforcing the next — the night ebbed and flowed, from remarks by intense and high-energy speakers like Mr. Giuliani to the meandering, strained speech by a former general (and onetime potential running mate), Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Trump’s own Fox hit appeared to force the network to go to commercials during an emotional and heart-rending speech by Patricia Smith, the mother of the Benghazi victim Sean Smith.

Ms. Trump’s well-received speech seemed to signal an end to the night, and delegates soon began drifting out of the arena with more than an hour left to go. One of the party’s rising stars, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, ended the evening speaking to a mostly empty room. The house band’s closing performance of “Sweet Caroline” ended halfway through the song.